Vertex Summer Intern 2026, Preclinical Safety Assessment

Vertex Pharmaceuticals•Boston, MA

2d•$33 - $50•Hybrid

About The Position

The Vertex Preclinical Safety Assessment internship program is a multi-week experiential training program. If you are passionate, collaborative, and growth-minded, an internship at Vertex will help you gain meaningful experience in our Discovery Core functional areas and serve as a launchpad for your career. The Predictive and Investigative Safety Assessment (PISA) group is seeking a highly motivated Intern to join our In Vitro Toxicology team located in Boston, MA. This individual will join a team of toxicologists working to design preclinical in vitro models to assess of the genotoxicity of novel therapeutic agents to de-risk potential drug candidates throughout the drug discovery process. The ideal candidate will have strong wet-lab skills and will be eager to learn or implement their computational skills to enable them to contribute to the experimental setup, implementation, and data analysis steps of the assay development process. Proficiency in various molecular and cellular technical skills is required. The applicant must be a demonstrated team player, adaptable to changing needs and able to work closely and responsively within their team. Excellent communication and people skills are required. The intern will learn about the drug development pipeline, assay development in industry, and the field of genotoxicity and related regulatory requirements.

Requirements

Enrolled in an PhD program in Biological Engineering, Molecular or Cell Biology, or other related fields
Experience in mammalian cell culture and sterile techniques is required
Some experience with immunofluorescence with image-based or flow cytometry-based readouts is required
Excellent multi-tasking skills and attention to detail are required
Ability to maintain accurate and reliable record keeping including database management, notebooks, and all other pertinent documentation is required
Full-time on-site in Boston, MA capacity
Legal authorization to work in the United States, now and in the future. Please note that Vertex does not provide sponsorship for internships or entry level roles within this part of the organization. You must be enrolled in an advanced degree program if graduating before August 2026
You must be available to work full-time, 40 hours per week from May - August 2026

Nice To Haves

Experience developing computational analysis workflows in MATLAB, Python, or other scripting languages is a plus
Willingness to learn about and develop computational and image analysis skills is a plus

Responsibilities

Contribute to the development of in vitro assays to support the selection and de-risking of potential drug candidates through close interactions with colleagues within PISA
Conduct in vitro assays using cell and molecular biology techniques, such as immunofluorescence, in multi-well plate-based formats
Leverage and/or build upon computational workflows that process imaging data to assess assay performance
Analyze internal and external historical data to guide assay development